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Kilrah
The planet Kilrah is the homeworld of the Kilrathi race and as such, the capital of the Kilrathi Empire. Background It was located in the Kilrah system within the Kilrah Sector and has two small moons, Igrathi and Largkza. Both moons serve as construction centers for the Kilrathi's massive space fleet. Kilrah is a semi-arid world of rolling savannas and smoking volcanoes. "Wing Commander Academy" Talking Papers on rhe Kilrathi Its cityscapes have a metallic splendor with silver walls and tall towers.Freedom Flight, chapter 1 Kilrah was home to billions of Kilrathi citizens and soldiers, as well as the home base of its massive armies. Dozens of space stations and hundreds of warships were stationed around Kilrah, with their fearsome crews dedicated to the extermination of all opposing races across the galaxy. Geology Kilrah is a massive volcanic and seismic world covered in lava flows and volcanoes. There are no oceans, but huge rift valleys forming its "continents". The planet's water is consisted of long and narrow brackish lakes, which defined the perimeters of the ancient clan homelands. Much of the planet is uninhabitable. There were massive cities scattered all across the planet, most notably the Capital City. It was home to the Imperial Palace, and like most Kilrathi structures, all of the buildings were asymmetrical in design. Kilrah was plagued by constant earthquakes for millenia prior to the Kilrathi War. This is because the planet's multiple layers were made up of hundreds of geological plates that underwent constant shifting and shuffling, destabilizing the planet's crust. It was theorized that it was this activity that contributed to the Kilrathi's aggression and their desire to conquer space during the final year of the Kilrathi War. History Kilrah has existed for several billion years, and has been the seat of Imperial power ever since the Kilrathi Empire was formed. Little else is known about its earlier history, but the planet played a major role in the events of the Kilrathi War. From 2634 to 2668, Kilrah managed to avoid direct contact with human forces from the Terran Confederation due to its location deep within Kilrathi airspace, which few humans dared to enter. Kilrah was often the planet where prisoners from enemy races, including humans, were sent to face execution or a lifetime of labor in the Kilrathi mines. In 2649, the Terran Confederation sent 60% of the Vega Sector Fleet to invade Kilrah but the attempt failed, as they were surprised by unexpected Kilrathi warships.Claw Marks After the success of the Vega Campaign and the battle at Venice system, the Kilrathi abandoned the Vega Sector and moved their central military command back to Kilrah.Star*Soldier When humanity started gaining the upper hand in the War in 2668, Confed decided to take the fight to Kilrah through a series of deep-space covert strikes. During the late 2660s, several Escort Carriers were commissioned by Confed to conduct deep-space raids using hit-and-fade tactics with the use of minimal but highly-trained special forces. Among these carriers was the famed , which became the first human vessel to attack Kilrah and return to human space after the Battle of Kilrah. The Tarawa, along with two escorting vessels and a full battalion of marines, attacked several of Kilrah's orbiting ship construction yards and several facilities on Kilrah's second moon of Largkza. Through brilliant leadership and quick-strike tactics, Tarawa decimated Kilrah's construction capabilities and left scores of Kilrathi dead. Although many marines and both of Tarawa's escorts were lost, the Tarawa itself escaped. This attack on Kilrah deeply humiliated the Kilrathi and was one of many attacks that left their infrastructure and once-invincible navy in ruins. By the end of 2668, the Kilrathi were dangerously close to losing the War. Unfortunately, the Kilrathi turned defeat into victory when the ambitious Baron Jukaga nar Ki'ra tricked the humans into agreeing to a temporary Armistace, giving the Kilrathi the time it needed to rebuild its fleet. Beyond Kilrah, the Kilrathi Navy was building its new fleet of highly-advanced Heavy Carriers in the Hari Sector. These ships were charged with the destruction of the human population on Earth. On December 31, 2668, this newly-revived Kilrathi Fleet attacked Earth and nearly destroyed the Confederation Fleet. Billions of humans died on both Earth and on the planet Sirius, once again giving the Kilrathi Empire the upper hand in the War. Despite these overwhelming losses, humanity was not yet defeated. During the year 2669, Confed High Command made plans to destroy Kilrah, hoping that its destruction would cause enough damage to derail the Kilrathi war effort. Such an attack would kill billions of Kilrathi, destroy dozens of ships, and kill the Kilrathi Emperor. Confed implemented various plans to destroy the planet, which had actually been in the works for over ten years beforehand. Two plans were simultaneously put into action during the final months of the War. Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn planned to deploy the TCS Behemoth against Kilrah. The Behemoth was designed to house a massive superlaser that would disintegrate any vessel or planet it targeted. Meanwhile, in Covert Ops, Brigadier General James Taggart sent a Special Forces team led by Colonel Jeannette Devereaux to Kilrah in order to study the planet's geology. Through covert research and the use of some of Confed's most advanced technology, Devereaux discovered Kilrah's geological instability, prompting Confed to develop the Temblor Bomb. This weapon was a highly-advanced warhead that when aimed at absolute precision would destabilize the tectonic structure of any planet and destroy it. Confed moved quickly to develop and commission these two weapons. Colonel Devereaux and her entire team were captured by the Kilrathi during their mission and sent to the Imperial Palace before Crown Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka and the Emperor. Choosing not to interrogate them, Thrakhath disintegrated Devereaux's comrades in front of thousands of cheering Kilrathi spectators. Colonel Devereaux, who had been spared this fate, was given the "honor" of being gutted by Thrakhath's claw, an execution granted to only those few foes that the Kilrathi truly respected as worthy opponents in combat. Despite the loss of Colonel Devereaux and her team, Covert Ops continued the development of the Temblor Bomb. In the meantime, Admiral Tolwyn launched the and after a successful test in the Loki System, prepared to send the vessel to Kilrah. However, the Behemoth never reached Kilrah as a traitor in Confed leaked the weak points of the Behemoth to the Kilrathi and they subsequently destroyed the vessel. In the wake of this disaster, Covert Ops enlisted the pilots of the to help them deploy the Temblor Bomb. After rescuing the Temblor Bomb's designer from the Kilrathi and conducting a successful test on an uninhabited planet, Confed moved quickly to launch an attack on Kilrah. Destruction During the final days of the War, Kilrah became the staging ground for the Kilrathi Grand Armada, a massive fleet comprised of hundreds of warships that would attack Earth and conquer the Terran Confederation once and for all. The Kilrathi were quick to begin celebrating this seemingly inevitable victory, as they were unaware of the massive Confed Fleet that had mustered itself in the nearby Freya System. The pilots of the Victory were making final preparations to destroy Kilrah and end the War for good. In what is now known as the Lancelot Flight, Confed intended for Colonel Christopher Blair, the legendary Wing Commander on the Victory, to lead a squadron of elite pilots to infiltrate the Kilrah System and deliver the Temblor Bomb to Kilrah. The group would fly F-103 Excalibur Heavy Fighters and use cloaked technology to penetrate Kilrah's defenses undetected. They would then land on two separate supply depots secretly built in Kilrah's asteroid fields. One would refuel the craft, and the other would load the Temblor Bomb on Blair's craft. Blair would then descend to the surface and launch the T-Bomb into one of the planet's faultlines, causing the planet to destabilize. On the day of the attack, Colonel Blair and his team successfully infiltrated Kilrah's outer perimeter and acquired the T-Bomb at the second depot. By this point, Blair had lost his entire squadron, but forged onward. While en route to the surface he encountered his old rival, Prince Thrakhath. Blair was able to destroy his despised foe and trekked towards the surface. Evading planetary patrols, Blair launched the T-Bomb into the targeted faultline as planned, sealing Kilrah's doom. Blair then fled the planet. The resulting explosion from the T-Bomb caused Kilrah's surface to destabilize and collapse inwards toward the core in a massive super earthquake, killing everybody on the surface, including the Kilrathi Emperor. Shock waves of energy emitted from the surface them consumed the Kilrathi vessels orbiting the planet, destroying the entire Grand Armada and all surrounding space stations. Kilrah's two moons were also destroyed. Kilrah itself then exploded, destroying the seat of Imperial power and the beloved homeworld of the Kilrathi. With the loss of the Kilrathi leadership and the Kilrathi fleet, the destruction of Kilrah signaled the end of the Kilrathi War and victory for humanity. Peacetime Following Kilrah's destruction, the Kilrah System became virtually uninhabitable, with only a massive asteroid field in Kilrah's place. By 2681, the humans and Kilrathi came to agreeable terms and Kilrah became a mining site for human ships. The system was especially rich in an element dubbed Kilrantium, as well as Borenium. Unfortunately, peace in the Kilrah System did not last. In 2681, a human research ship known as the was destroyed by hostile alien forces during a routine mission at Kilrah. These aliens, later dubbed the Nephilim, proceeded to build a wormhole gate that would allow their fleets to pour into Kilrathi space and launch an invasion of both the Kilrathi and human worlds. The Kilrathi were helpless to stop this, but the Terran Confederation would not go down without a fight. They sent their prized vessel, the Midway, to destroy the Nephilim invaders. Eventually, they succeeded and Kilrah was liberated from the alien threat. Flora and fauna *Nagga *Ulanna *''Wing Commander: Fleet Action'' *''Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger'' Category:Planets Category:Empire of Kilrah